Island Def Jam recently announced that Hikaru Utada will be appearing at three Sephora stores in the U.S. to promote her new album, "This Is The One," which goes on sale digitally on the 24th.

The scheduled appearances are in Hollywood on March 24 (6-8pm), New York on March 25 (6-8pm), and Miami on March 27 (7-9pm).

Readers of TVnavi magazine have cast their votes for 2008's Drama of the Year, and on Saturday it was announced that the winner is the TBS suspense series "Maou" that starred Satoshi Ohno and Toma Ikuta. Ohno also was named Best Actor for his role in that series.

Aoi Miyazaki was voted Best Actress for "Atsuhime." Best Supporting Actor and Actress went to Eita and Juri Ueno, who both appeared in Fuji TV's "Last Friends." In the Best Newcomer category, Ryosuke Yamada ("One-Pound Gospel," "Scrap Teacher") and Manami Higa ("Code Blue") received the most votes.

On Thursday at the Okinawa International Movie Festival, comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto (of Downtown) held a press conference for his next film. The piece is titled "Symbol" ("Shinboru") and like "Dainipponjin," Matsumoto is taking on the roles of screenwriter, director, and lead actor.

Filming took about four months starting at the end of last September, and the movie is currently in editing. Matsumoto is planning for theatrical release this coming September, but he hopes to have the film done in time for a possible screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

According to Matsumoto during the press conference, "Symbol" is about an imprisoned man who plans his escape but is caught up in various incidents. He also remarked that the film does not really have any cast members other than himself.